thecapitol | Little girl, little girl [open]

Entry tags:

Little girl, little girl [open]

Who| Clementine and OTA
What| Clem wakes up from her first ever death in the arena, then goes up to the roof with her thoughts
Where| District 6, then the roof
When| End of week 5 of the arena
Warnings/Notes| Inevitable angst

Prompt A: District 6 Suite

Clementine wakes up, that's the nightmare. Not the six weeks proceeding it.

She never thought she'd be so unhappy to discover herself alive. It's not just the shock of it or the horrible memory of dying, it's the fear of what she did in the space between dying and waking up. Clementine remembers a girl who tried to save her and then she remembers trying to warn her but she's can't recall clearly if she actually got the words out before she died.

The fear of it overtakes her as she sits up on the bed, pulling up her knees to bury her face in them, arms wrapped tight around her legs to muffle the sound of the first sob. She should be stronger than this, better than this. Instead she'd been stupid and possibly gotten other people killed. Nevermind what the Capitol did to the food, she's still going to blame herself now for her actions.

Prompt B: The rooftop garden

Hours after waking up Clementine has calmed down but in desperate need of fresh air, a space to clear her head away from the view of any screens. She's started to get a picture of what's happened since she died; what happened after, who else she knows who's died and who is still left alive in the arena.

Joel, Sabriel... they took care of what she'd become. She'll have to thank and apologise to them when they come out but all of that seems very far away as she looks out at the gleaming city from the balcony, her chin pillowed on folded arms over the railing.

It's so wrong, those people out there enjoying the spectacle of the games, not understanding the real horror of what the tributes go through. Clementine doesn't understand how they can be so removed from the suffering happening under their very noses.

[[ooc: Prompts are in prose but reply in any format you wish!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"She couldn't have known." Clementine folds her arms around her chest. Her fault, she's resolved now that she'll make that request on the network, she won't let another person die because they didn't know the truth that Clementine is infected and dangerous.

If they know to destroy her brain then she won't be coming back. God, there's footage out there of her as a Walker, it makes her feel sick. "I don't feel like I did well. I was stupid at the end."

"Doesn't matter: biggest mistake she made was letting you go as a zombie. That way you'll have other people on your conscience. Granted, she was probably too injured to do anything, but that place...everything was out to kill you, its better to be paranoid."

She raised her eyebrow. "Well yeah, climbing up the tree without help was pretty stupid."

"Did... did I kill anyone else?" she asked, alarmed at the idea. "Wait... how long has it been?"

Clementine snorts a little, "Thanks." she says, deadpan but not with any real aggression. Really that's what she likes about Mindy, she doesn't sugarcoat things. If you make a mistake and it really is your fault she'll tell you. "I think they did something to the fruit. It was like I couldn't think straight suddenly, I had to have some right then."

Mindy shook her head. "No, they took you out before you could do any real damage. It was just...pretty bad, probably for both of them."

She shrugged. "Hey, I call them like I see them. You're better off rationing your food, and if you're going to go and do something like climbing a tree. Once you're there as late as you are. things start to get pretty fucking vicious."

"Thank God." Clementine says, relieved to hear that. The last thing those who were left in the arena would need is a steadily growing population of Walkers.

She smiled without humour, "Yeah, guess that's a lesson learned for next time, right?"

"Some people actually know how the fuck to deal with zombies," Mindy said, shaking her head. "But I bet Joel was happy he didn't have to do it himself."

And so was she when it came down to it. She'd been watching Joel, and really, he'd been through enough.

"You better believe it. Next time, make sure the food I send ya lasts along with the items."

"Wait, who did?" Mindy's going to have to clearly explain it to her because as she's proving she doesn't remember a thing about her time as a Walker and that's a mercy.

Joel saw... Joel was there. She'd never have wanted for him -- or anyone -- to see her like that.

"I will." however good she'd thought she'd been at making the food last she'd have to do better. "... thank you, for sending it."

"The new girl, Sabriel. She was able to call you to stop, and, well, she had a crowbar. That was the end of that. I saw you were traveling with Joel, might want to check in on him when he comes back."

He had a way of irritating her, but he hadn't deserved the recent turn of events.

"Good. I don't want you dying so easily the next time, even if you did last longer than I did. I mean, if you go down in a blaze that's one thing, but to get infected, that's just not cool."

Some people deserved better.

"So. No point in staying here being fucking depressed. Want to go do something within reason of being secluded?"

Sabriel. Sabriel was used to dealing with the dead. That was okay.

"Well I was already infected, Mindy." she points out, rubbing the back of her neck.

Clementine looks at her, pondering her options. Stay in here and mope or do something to avoid, as Mindy put it, being depressing; both have their appeal. Ultimately she tentatively agrees to the latter, or at least she will depending on what Mindy says. "Like what?"

"I know that, I was making a point," she said, scoffing. "It was rough, is what I was trying to say. It's a pretty bad way to die. Though seriously, I'm starting to think Sandy can't catch a break in these things."

Good question. "Oh, I don't know, what the hell do kids like us do when we're all mopey and shit? Build fires, sacrifice people to the elder gods, some shit like that."

"Easy would just be killing ourselves at the start." Clementine snorts softly, she doesn't get a lot of what Mindy says sometimes, the older girl has an odd way of speaking. "I'm as clueless as you."

But she thinks about it for a moment, "... well I'm hungry. We could start with that." Dying apparently works up an appetite.

"It wouldn't be easy for me," Mindy said. "That's one thing I'd never do, no matter how fucked up things got. I never give in without fighting, even when I'm dying."

Which Guy had witnessed first hand.

"Man, we suck at this. Ok, food it is. What's your favorite?"

"I've seen people choose it before. I wouldn't either though, no matter how bad things get." It was one thing she'd never been able to understand, just giving up like that. You found them occasionally, the remains of suicides in houses or other places. Once they'd passed a man who'd tried to hang himself, clearly in the early days before the news that you came back no matter how you died got around.

It'd been bizarre watching a Walking swinging around like that.

"Pizza." Clementine decides quickly enough. "With everything."

"I knew someone who would. The Capitol decided to put a stop to it by torturing someone unrelated as punishment. You can imagine that he decided not to do that anymore. It's what people forget in the Arena or outside of it: they own you. You can't pretend its not the case no matter what you do: eventually, the shit they do will leak down on you. It always does."

She laughed. "Everything? That's a lot of shit, Clem. You sure about that?"

"Figures." Even the 'easy' way out really wasn't here.

Clementine allows a half-smile to show on her face, shrugging a skinny shoulder. "I went three years without pizza and a lot more stuff before coming here. Trust me, I can eat anything now."

"Try going to break the kid out and getting a scalding for your trouble," Mindy said, groaning. "Not fun."

Good point. "True. So we can go and get it somewhere downstairs, or I could try my hand at making it. Don't know if we have anchovies though."

"Do you know how to make it?" she asks her. It'd be kind of interesting to see. "One missing topping isn't so bad." Clementine allows, teasing.

"Yeah, had to a few times, we and dad trained intensely, so, you know, its not like money was pouring in. Good though. I don't like 'em, too fucking salty."

She grinned. "Now for the heavy question: do you fold it or not?"

"That's cool, I'd like to know how too." And if it means not going out to where people might stare or talk about her so much to better.

Now the question confuses her, "Why would you fold a pizza?" Calzone is clearly a unknown mystery to Clementine.

"That's cool. If you want to be lazy about it, you can always do the English muffin method where you throw on some sauce, topping and cheese. It's a quick way to do it. My way, MUCH longer."

She grinned, "Good girl. No reason at ALL to fold a goddamn pizza, don't know why so many New Yorkers do it."

"I think we should do it your way." Clementine decides, it's her first meal out of the arena and if Mindy's going to be nice enough to make it for her she wants it do be done properly.

"Is that where you're from?"

"You know what? I think we should too. It's been way too long since I've made something with my own hands, let alone for somebody else."

She nodded. "Yup. It's loud, dirty and full of horrible people, but its mine."

"Alright, it's a plan."

Clementine looks mildly interested. "I remember seeing it on tv. it didn't seem that bad, probably more interesting than Atlanta."

"It's got some really nice parts, but I tended to work the underbelly, if you catch my drift."

She chuckled. "Certain key cities have their people who swear by it, and so do I." She was already starting to get the flour, and was estimating how much dough she'd need. "Where are you from?"

"Sort of." Clementine answered honestly. "Georgia. I lived just outside Atlanta with my parents, then after the Walkers happened I was always on the move. We were heading north before I got brought here."

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